Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
ages to create an environment, videos to animate some elements, and a real-time
3D engine to drive characters. All those things together created an excellent visual
presentation. Such an approach was referred to as 2.5D graphics.
The first part of Syberia was successfully ported to iOS devices
Nevertheless, in the second part of the 2000s, part of the new titles were less in-
triguing and artistic than their predecessors. The gameplay turned into something
mechanical; scripts were not very exciting and the ideas were not so inspiring. The
genre was in a creative crisis. A way out was founded by enthusiasts, who began to
design so-called author's adventures.
The games were created by individuals not because of desire to get strong profit
but to tell their own stories. They needed self-expression via interactive fiction.
Such games used free engines such as Adventure Game Studio (
ht-
tp://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
) or
Wintermute Engine Development Kit
(
WME
) (
http://dead-code.org/home/
). Some of the designers also used Adobe Flash
because of the flexible nature of this technology and the simplicity of distribution of
the final product; the author simply had to put the game online. A wonderful example
is
Samorost
(2003), a surreal puzzle-adventure game designed by a Czech student
Jakub Dvorský
,whichcouldbeconsideredasarealpieceofmodernart.Lateritsau-
thor found an independent game studio called
Amanita Design
. In 2009, it produced
another gem, a game that can be marked as one of the most beautiful adventure
projects of the decade, Machinarium. The key of success was based on its engross-
ing story, charming mood, and the incredible drawings of a talented Czech graphic
artist,
Adolf Lachman
(
http://adolflachman.cz/machinarium/
). The game was rewar-
ded with many awards and nominations: Aesthetics award at IndieCade (2008), Ex-
cellence in Visual Art award at the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival, and
so on. It achieved a huge fan base being ported on various platforms, including iOS.
The most important fact is that Machinarium was an indie project. The game was not
produced by a gigantic corporation but by a small team of people who liked to tell
